Gathering of Mustangs

and Legends 2007

By
Larry Wilcox
I thought this would be a once in a lifetime event and that I really needed to
go see it. I was not disappointed. I drove up to Columbus on Wednesday
and got up early Thursday morning to go and see the planes come in.
Unfortunately, the weather was awful. The ceiling was about 300 feet and
it was raining pretty hard. So I figured I would read for awhile and see
what was going to happen. A friend that was also there called and said a
bunch of them were going to the Air Force Museum in Dayton and I was
welcome to tag along. So we spent the day in Dayton. Of course I didn’t
have my tripod with me so my pictures are not real good from there. But I
have been there before so mostly I just enjoyed the sights and sounds.
Friday morning was clear and bright so I headed for the airshow. After
working out a few kinks in the organization, we were all allowed into the
show grounds. I was really glad I was able to go on Friday because
otherwise I would never have gotten pictures of all the planes. There were
still planes coming in on Friday and I think the final number of P-51s was
probably about 68-70, which I thought was pretty good considering the
weather earlier in the week.
I have pictures of all the P-51s side art I think and I haven’t decided whether to
do a presentation of that or not. If you are interested, let me know and I
can do one. I had only seen maybe a third or less of the planes before, so
it was kind of interesting. A lot of the planes were so clean you could eat
off them, others looked like they had just returned from combat.
I am going to try to include some of everything that I saw in this show, not just
the P-51s.
The show started with the National Anthem and the Red Baron Stearman
squadron flying around the flag.
Since we have been here with our grandsons, we have tried the Red Baron
Pizza and it is actually pretty good.
One of the best airshow acts is the Aeroshell team. I hadn’t seen them in a couple of years. It seems
they tried to have planes that were associated with the Air Force and the P-51. The T-6 Texan was
an Advanced Trainer, usually the last plane a pilot flew before he went to fighters.
Lee Lauderback and Crazy Horse are airshow staples. Lee was one of the
driving forces behind the Gathering. You can buy a ride in this plane in
Florida.
One of my favorites was Princess Elizabeth, a P-51C from Philadelphia. Jim Beasley owns
this plane and also Frenesi and Bald Eagle, both P-51Ds. Being a lawyer must pay pretty
good. There are about 4 or five P-51 pilots that are a cut above the rest and Jim Beasley
is definitely one of those.
P-51C “Princess Elizabeth”
Hell-er Bust was one of the ones you could eat off of. It was spotless.
Dusty’s Dolly was a little more rustic, probably more accurate than the highly
polished P-51s.
They had single ship demos from the F-16, F-15 and F-22. The F-16 had a
single P-51 Heritage Flight.
F-16 Heritage Flight
F-15 Heritage Flight
F-22 Heritage Flight
P-38 Lightning called Ruff
Stuff.
Glacier Girl was also there, but
did not fly.
Bell P-63 King Cobra.
P-47 Thunderbolt
You have heard of the F-82, Twin Mustang? I guess this is a Twin Thunderbolt.
P-51D Old Crow. Most of the P-51s represent actual aircraft. Old Crow was
flown by Col. Bud Anderson, who shot down 16 ¼ enemy aircraft.
 Republic P-47D Thunderbolts.
Wicked Wabbit and Hun Hunter
XVI are two of the most popular
planes at airshows, partly
because of the
rarity of the planes and because
the pilots are very good and
nice people.

These planes were built at the

Maytag factory in Evansville,
Indiana, about 50 miles south
of here.
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk.
Avro Lancaster Bomber. One of two flying in the world.
Avro Lancaster
B-25 “Pacific Prowler”
B-25 “Axis Nightmare”
B-17G Yankee Lady. It is amazing to hear how many of these were lost and
each one had a crew of 10!
On Saturday, Yankee Lady was “hit” by flak while bombing and an engine smoked for
awhile. This was an interesting show. You could almost feel what it must have been like.
There is an interesting story in the program about a B-17 that was hit while on
a bombing run in 1944. It fell out of formation and was limping home to
England when it was set upon by three German BF-109 fighters. It was
being further damaged when a P-51 appeared and shot down two of the
Germans and drove the other one away. The B-17 pilot had no idea who
the P-51 pilot was but the P-51 came up beside the B-17 and saluted as he
pulled away. The side art on the P-51 was “Hurry Home Honey”. Sixty
years later in Lexington, Kentucky Dr. Kent Mosley, the B-17 pilot, met
Major Pete Peterson, the P-51 pilot for the first time.

Major Peterson’s wife ended every letter with the phrase “Hurry Home Honey”
and that is what he named his plane.
P-51D “Hurry Home Honey”
P-51A “Polar Bear”
P-51D “Red Dog XII”
This airport was where the
Tuskegee Airmen
learned to fly the P-51.
There were 46 of the
Tuskegee Airmen at the
show. A salute to them
was flown by the Red
Tail P-51C “Ina” Macon
Belle.
P-51D “Twilight Tear”. This plane came from England for the show.
P-51D “Sizzlin’ Liz”
P-51D “Obsession”
P-51D “DiamondBack”
Some of the P-51s taking off for the finale.
While getting the P-
51s in formation,
John Mohr flew the
Stearman again.
This was one of the
crowd favorites.
Twenty P-51s in formation. I didn’t stay for Sunday so don’t know how many
were up for that one.
The last pass on Saturday. It was a really good show.